


An ot(h)ter story

by Frasers_soulmate



Category: due South
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 19:34:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8934136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frasers_soulmate/pseuds/Frasers_soulmate
Summary: Another idea for the Otter story ... or how Benton and Innusiq became friends.The 10-year-old Ben lives with his grandparents in Tuktoyaktuk and can attend a real school.One day a new classmate comes. The Semi-Inuit boy Innusiq...





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tinadolphin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinadolphin/gifts).



> For tinadolphin.  
> The translation of my German story.  
> Ben's childhood.  
> Since you don't know much about Benton Fraser's childhood, there is still plenty of room for fanfiction.  
> The second story from Ben's childhood. There are more - promised.
> 
>  
> 
> This story is for you, tinadolphin. Thank you kindly for your friendship.

Ten-year-old Benton Fraser lived with his grandparents in Tuktoyaktuk at the Arctic Sea. His grandparents decided to send him to school. The boy was very happy about it, but he was taught most of the time by his grandmother at home.  
Not that it really mattered to him, but after a long argument, his grandparents, George and Martha Fraser, decided to send the boy to school so he could make some social contacts.

But Benton was a loner, without really friends, but that didn't bother him. It was enough for him to be near other children and watch them play.  
But no one wanted to be friends with this little, strange bookworm.  
He was the smallest in his class and very thin. But he was tough. And stubborn. If he had something in his mind, he also reached it. He was wise and clever. The other children called him keener and Teacher's pet.  
Yes, the teachers liked him because he liked to learn and was curious.  
Above all Ms. Barclay, his class teacher. She was still very young and didn't teach for long. Ben liked her from the beginning. She reminded him of his mother. Perhaps because she used the same perfume?  
Or because she accepted him as he was?

Sometimes she invited him home. She had a piano and gave him lessons. His grandmother liked it, especially because it cost her nothing.  
She said that he would finally start something useful with his free time and not just to roam around in the area.

Well, at least one day a new student came into the class. A half-inuit called Innusiq. He wasn't taller than Ben and even more meager.  
This Innusiq awakened Ben's interest from the beginning. Perhaps because he was just as much an outsider as himself?  
The other classmates had now found a new victim and left Ben alone.  
Especially Carl, the classrowdy. He was older than the others because he had to repeat the class twice. Everyone was afraid of him, because he was taller and stronger than most of them. But he was stupid.

Stupid, lazy, brutal and violent.

His father was a hunter and the biggest drunkard in town. When he came home drunk, he beat his wife and his children.  
But he was a good and reliable worker. Wherever someone strong was needed, Carl's father was called. He wasn't the brightest, but reliable and strong. And a good hunter.  
Only when he was drunk, he was contentious and insupportable.

And he drunk almost every night.

Carl was very similar to him. And he hated Ben, even if he couldn't explain the reason for it. Ben was trying to avoid him, but Carl loved to torment him.  
When Ben came home with a black eye or tattered trousers, because Carl and his subjects had once again beaten him, his grandmother scolded him and sent him to bed without dinner.

Ben bore it in silence. 

Sometimes the grandfather sneaked into his room, brought him milk and biscuits or sometimes a banana.  
Ben loved bananas, but they were rarely available here. Just like oranges, which he loved even more than bananas.  
The grandfather then held a finger to his lips and his blue eyes sparkled mischievously.  
Ben always thought he was happy when he could enumerate grandmother.  
Later, Ben realized that she knew it and sent grandfather to his chamber.

"One must be strict with the boy, George," she said.

Grandfather sat down on his bed and whispering, he told him stories. Ben ate his biscuits and the banana, drank his milk, and listened to his grandfather.  
It was their secret ritual.  
Strangely, Ben was almost happy when Carl and his gang beat him, so it was meant to spend time with his grandfather.

Well, this Carl and his subjects lost the interest in the Fraser boy when Innusiq came into the class.  
'crossbreed' and 'dirty Eskimo' were just the more harmless words they used.

Innusiq could hardly read and write properly, although he was as old as Ben. Well, that Carl also couldn't, but it did not seem to bother him.  
But Innusiq.  
Ben felt that the Inuit boy would like to learn, but so far had probably not had many possibilities.  
Ms. Barclay seemed to notice this too, and asked Ben if he wanted to help the boy, as the top of class.

Well, he wanted to ...

"But?" Ms. Barclay asked, but Ben was silent. He couldn't tell her that he feared Carl and his friends.  
Well, he wasn't really afraid. Actually, he was afraid of almost nothing, but he didn't want to draw attention to the gang.  
But that was unfair to Innusiq, who was innocent and had so no idea ...  
No, this boy needed a protector.

And finally Ben wanted to be a mountie!  
Like his dad!

He proudly stretched his lean chest, stroked the unruly dark locks from his forehead, and held out his hand to his teacher.

"All right, Ms. Barclay," he said."I'll do it."

"Thank you," she replied, shaking his little hand. "I knew I could rely on you, Benton."

That made him proud. So he helped not only Innusiq, but he also did his favorite teacher a favour. After the lesson, he took the Inuit boy aside and told him that he wanted to help him learn.

"Why?" He asked with a strange accent, but Ben didn't answer so quickly.

What was that question? He wanted to help him.

Ben shrugged. "Just so ..." he replied.

But Innusiq was rebellious. He shouted at Ben. Said he didn't need a babysitter and that the white people anyway believed they were special. Then he left Ben and ran away.

Surprised, the boy looked down at himself, looked at his hands, felt his face and squinted.  
"White people," Innusiq had said.  
What did he mean?  
Was Ben one of these white people?  
Well, his skin was pretty pale, but that had always been the case.

He asked his grandmother, who for him was the wisest woman in the world, and she told him what the Inuit boy had meant.  
It was the first time that Ben came directly into contact with racism.  
Grandmother said it was a good thing to look after the boy.  
Ben was stubborn. He brought Innusiq a banana. He had never seen anything like it, but he took it. Good. That was a beginning. Ben remained stubborn and didn't let Innusiq out of sight.  
He was very reserved and suspicious, but Ben's grandmother had told him why that was so.

So some time passed, and the Inuit boy slowly took confidence. He realized that the Fraser boy was just as much an outsider as himself and so he allowed Ben to help him.

One morning Ms. Barclay was summoned by the principal. She told the students to write a text and be quiet. Ben looked around. Fortunately, Carl wasn't there today, so it would be rather quiet in the class until the teacher came back.  
It was a warm late summer day and Ben looked out the window. He'd rather go out into nature now, but he knew that learning was more important. He looked over at Innusiq and sighed softly. The Inuit boy was trying to string the letters together. Behind them giggled a few children.

Then suddenly the door to the classroom flew open and Carl stood there. He was covered with mud all over. His hair was wildly disheveled and his eyes sparkled.  
He opened his much-too-big, old army jacket, and brought out a grown sea-otter. He grinned maliciously and swung the dead otter over his head. His friends were shouting with pleasure.  
Ben was sorry for the animal. Innusiq was trying to hide.

Carl went to Innusiq's seat and hit the table with the otter. The wet, bloody animal ruined Innusiq's notebooks. Ben looked respectfully at the strong teeth of the dead animal.

"Hey, Eskimo!" Carl shouted. "Why are you trembling?" He hit the boy with the dead animal. Innusiq stared in horror at his tormentor. Carl struck again.

Ben got up and said objectively, "You know, Carl, it's a widespread mistake that the Inuit ..."

"Stop that, Fraser!" Carl interrupted him angrily.

Again he struck the otter to Innusiq. He slid under the table, frightened.

"Carl ..." Ben tried again.

"Shut up, smart ass!"

Ben could see the rage in Carl's face. Why was he so aggressive? Neither Ben nor Innusiq had ever done anything to him.

"It's disrespectful to the animals and mother nature, how you behave," said Ben dangerously calmly, his eyes dark blue as deep glacier lakes.

Carl laughed hatefully: "You're probably such a disguised Eskimo?"

Ben stepped forward a few steps and tried to take the dead otter out of his hand, but Carl only laughed and pushed Ben back so hard that he fell to the butt.

"Keep out of this, Fraser, don't interfere!" Carl exclaimed.

Ben looked at Innusiq, who was crouched with big, fearful eyes under the school bench, and he became very furious. He jumped to his feet and went to Carl. But he was one-and-a-half heads taller and much stronger than the slender Ben, and pushed him back with ease.  
Ben fell with his back against the edge of the table, which gave him a short breath.  
Then he jumped back to Carl and kicked him hard against the shinbone. Deadly hate glittered in the eyes of the bigger boy.

"Fraser, you rat!" He hissed, took out the dead otter and struck with all his strength.  
And he had a lot of it.

The sharp teeth of the otter drifted deep into the flesh beneath Ben's right collarbone, not that there was much flesh, and tore out a large piece.  
Ben stared perplexed at Carl and the otter before he felt the terrible pain.  
Then he heard the girls of the class begin to scream.  
It was loud in the room and Ben looked down at himself. The whole right side of his shirt was full of blood, which surprised him. The screams of the others were far away, he could hear them as if through cotton.

Then he saw Innusiq's eyes.  
He would never forget this look.  
Full of fear and admiration.

Suddenly, Ms. Barclay was there looking at him in horror. He wanted to explain the situation to her, but he didn't get a word out. His right shoulder and chest burned like fire.

What was that?  
And why did Ms. Barclay look so worried?  
Where was Carl?  
And Innusiq?  
Was he safe?

He pressed his hand to his clavicle and wondered why it felt warm and humid. When he looked at his fingers, he realized with surprise that they were bloody. Then it went dark ...

When he came to consciousness again, he was at home in his bed and the doctor was there. And he felt terrible pain.  
"Innusiq ...", he said, but the doctor didn't know what it means.  
He called Ben's grandmother.

Ben and Innusiq became friends from then on and Carl got banned from school.

One year later, Ben had to move again ...

 

TYK


End file.
